Vidhya Ranganathan

Thiruppavai - Verse 3 Learning and interpretations

After a brief hiatus, back to the Thiruppavai series. All these days, I was ruminating on a lot of commentary for Thiruppavai and other Vishitadvaitam works. One thing that was clear to me was, Thiruppavai seems to be the easiest/quickest possible way to start reading about the philosophical tenants of Vedanta. Without much ado, delving into the verse 3.

Our religious texts, as we know, are filled with personifications. The personification was made so that the concept was driven down easily. Unfortunately, the intent got diluted and personification was replaced with verbatical understanding.

This verse if translated would mean that, if we were to chant praises of Lord Vamana who measured the world in three giant steps and keep up with the rules of the nombu, we can expect a good spell of rain, thereby leading to prosperity(indicated by plentiful milk supply, tall paddy fields and ponds with fishes).

Now to decipher the personifications:

ஓங்கி உலகளந்த உத்தமன் பேர்பாடி *

Here the reference is made to Trivikrama. As mentioned in previous posts, the Trivikrama avatar is said to be a personification of the three giant strides that the Lord takes to measure three worlds.

This three stride concept is interpreted in various ways by different commentaries. But, something that is common across all these interpretations is that the strides manifests in form of Sun or rising, culmination and setting of the sun.

The weather channels define strides that Earth takes around the sun in terms of Equinox and Solstice.
*Equinox indicates equal night i.e., equal day and night.

Vernal equinox - First day of spring.

Autumn equinox - First day of Autumn.

Summer solstice - the first day of summer, characterized by longest daytime.

Winter solstice - the first day of winter, characterized by shortest daytime.

These terminologies rely on the fact that there is an imaginary celestial sphere.

Surya Siddhanta - the grammar book for Vedic astrology, explains the similar concepts but personifies the strides of the earth as strides of Lord Vishnu.

Here the terminology is:

Uttarayana - Northward(uttar) movement(ayana)

Dakshinayana - Southward(dakshin) movement (ayana)

This theory is based on the movement of the sun towards north or south hemisphere.

To correlate these two terminologies:

Uttarayana is the movement from winter solstice to summer solstice

Dakshinayana is the movement from summer solstice to winter solstice.

Putting these together, Trivikrama performs his three strides to keep this seasons going.(chakra personification to indicate that this is a never-ending activity)

ஓங்கி உலகளந்த - Taking large strides to around the world.

The seasons are directly proportional to weather. So, the purpose of these strides is to predominantly provide the apt weather conditions that aid harvest and living.

It is a known fact that moon has a significant effect on rainfall on Earth. Moon(personified by Sangu - may be due to its white color), Sun(personified by chakra) and strides, the path of movement, together are responsible for good rainfall season.

Okay, now what has these stuff got to do with Thiruppavai and margazhi?!

The major benefit of pavai nombu is the three spells of rain that helps in maintaining the water cycle.

Rainfall prediction was done merely by observing the nature and finding patterns that led to good spell. Astrology scriptures say that conception of rainfall is indicated via three symptoms:

Terrestrial

Atmospheric

Planetary

It is said that the chances of having rainfall 195 days after the record of these symptoms are really high.

The conception of monsoon happens right after the rainy season has come to an end. The conception begins on a full moon day of margazhi. So how do we observe these symptoms? Pointers for these are also in Thiruppavai:

Planetary symptom

வெள்ளி எழுந்து வியாழம் உறங்கிற்று

There are certain favorable combinations but one such thing recorded is Venus rise and Jupiter set at the same time.

Atmospheric symptom

This is for sure, observing the clouds.

கீழ்வானம் வெள்ளென்று எருமை சிறு வீடு

Silver/whitish pre-dawn clouds is a good symptom. The wind is nice and breezy in the margazhi mornings.